The End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program for children with chronic renal failure is one of the largest in the country and includes both dialysis and transplant services. The Dialysis Program offers chronic in-center hemodialysis, as well as home based peritoneal and hemodialysis.
Kidney transplantation services provide transplantation from deceased donors and living related and unrelated donors. The care teams include the multidisciplinary renal team, dialysis nurses and technicians, transplant coordinators, interventional radiologists, and dedicated transplant and dialysis access surgeons.
Hypertension Clinic
The Hypertension Clinic evaluates and treats children and teenagers with elevated blood pressure (hypertension). This clinic is multidisciplinary and includes physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and dietitians. Our goal is to work with you and your child to create a personalized and effective plan to manage your child’s elevated blood pressure and prevent future complications.
The Kidney Stone Clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic for children with kidney stones. The care team which includes nephrologists, urologists, dieticians, and nurses evaluate, diagnose, and manage patients with kidney stones due to genetic, metabolic, and/or structural causes.
The Lupus Clinic is dedicated to the care of children with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE). This comprehensive care program includes nephrologists, rheumatologists, gynecologists, nurse practitioners, and nurse educators, and is dedicated to improving outcomes and the quality of life for over 175 children with SLE, including over 100 with kidney involvement.
Antenatal counseling is provided to over 400 patients annually with developmental renal anomalies at the Fetal Center at the Pavilion for Woman at Texas Children’s Hospital. The care team includes maternal fetal medicine and fetal intervention specialists, fetal care coordinators, urologists, nephrologists, and genetic counselors.
Apheresis Services
The Renal Service provides a broad range of apheresis services including Red Cell Exchange (RCE), Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE), leuko-depletion, and peripheral stem cell harvesting which is accredited by FACT. Care is provided both in the outpatient and inpatient setting by a multidisciplinary team of nephrologists, pathologists, advanced practice nurses, and nursing experts.
Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine start Renal Genetics Clinic
Genetics and Genomics have been increasingly incorporated into the practice of daily medicine. This has created a unique opportunity to apply precision medicine in different specialties and subspecialties. Genetics mechanisms contribute to a large percentage of renal diseases especially in childhood. With this in mind, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine initiated the Renal Genetics Clinic in February 2015, led by Dr. Mir Reza Bekheirnia.
Dr. Bekheirnia, ABMGG board certified clinical and clinical molecular geneticist, has a specific clinical interest in diagnosis and management of the diseases and anomalies of the kidney and genitourinary tract. The scope of Renal Genetics Clinic includes: cystic kidney disease, hematuria (e.g. Alport syndrome), hereditary forms of kidney stone, syndromic and familial forms of kidney and genitourinary tract malformations, nephrotic syndrome, Fabry disease and a number of other hereditary kidney diseases.
The Renal Genetics Clinic aims to provide the most accurate molecular diagnoses for the patients and their family members. Although, there is not yet a cure for most of the genetic disorders, there are therapeutic measures that can be done if the right diagnosis is known. As an example, it is important to know the underlying cause of cystic kidney disease. There are more than 80 genes known to be related to cystic kidney. Several other examples of the impact of clinical genetics evaluation on management of the renal patients exist, including genetically tailored treatments for steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome, Alport syndrome, and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome are among such examples. In addition, involvement of other organs can be caught early and a more accurate outcome prediction and counseling can be also be provided.
Clinical genetics evaluations that benefits the families include genetic testing, interpretation of the results including variants of uncertain clinical significance, patient-focused genetic counseling and therapeutic/management planning. The close relationship with the Baylor College of Medicine Diagnostic Genetics Laboratory plays a key role in the success of the Renal Genetics Clinic.
For questions or referrals to this clinic, please contact Nasim Bekheirnia (clinic manager) at nxbekhei@texaschildrens.org.
